Rocky Mountain High

Ruby Mountain Campground, Nathrop, Colorado to Pullout south of Copper Mountain, Colorado – June 5 and June 6, 2103

On the internet we’ve identified a campground in Leadville that is reasonably priced and convenient to downtown. We cruised by in Big Guy to take a look at it and we were disappointed. It seemed to be entirely populated by full time residents complete with all the deleterious that  goes along with them. Plus, even though we were assured when we called ahead that they could fit us in, we didn’t share the same optimism. Instead, we found a parking lot that had spaces for RVs carved out and parked there so we could explore the town while we contemplated our next move.

Neither one of us remembered seeing a “No Camping” sign in the parking lot, so we thought we might have a “Plan B” in the works. After checking again, we found a sign that said “No Parking from 2AM to 6AM”. Driving 6 blocks from one end of town to the other for 4 hours early in the morning didn’t sound doable so we’re gonna need a “Plan C”.

The Visitor Center was housed in a beautiful old Victorian building. But once inside we were pretty much on our own as the attendant seemed more interested in talking about how hard the Town Council was making it to start any kind of a new business than dispensing information about the highlights of Leadville and the surrounding area. So we grabbed some brochures and decided to go get some food while absorbing the printed information.

At the Golden Burro Café and Lounge we chose the waitress and owner gave us more than enough information about what to see and do in the area. In fact they made us feel special by giving us a map to the “Route of the Silver Kings” that is out of print that they kept hidden in the back room.

Some quick facts: Leadville is the highest incorporated city in the United States; it is referred to as the “Two Mile High City”; and it is the only municipality in Lake County.

The day was getting away from us and we had silver mines to find. When the last mine played out in 1980, the land around Leadville was so polluted from the runoff and tailings that it was declared a Superfund Site. The Superfund designation is about to expire as the government declares Leadville is 98 percent pollution free.

Here is part of the Silver Kings route.

Now it’s time to figure out “Plan C”. Supposedly Copper Mountain Resort allows RVs to stay overnight in their bigger parking lots. So think that’s where we’ll head. We head out on the “Top of the Rockies” hiway and get higher and higher.  Along the way we pass frozen lakes (and this is June, it’s supposed to be summer). I guess up here at 11,000 feet the suns not that hot (grin), or the ice was really thick.

Frank remembers reading about a large paved parking lot about 9 miles from Copper Mountain that has no signs prohibiting over night parking. We find it and pull in deciding that it will fit the bill nicely. This will be our first night sleeping at over 11,000 feet. If we don’t pass out from lack oxygen first.

When we woke up the following morning, we found our careful planning of concerning elevation increases wasn’t worth hooey! The headaches were there, gulping air at the slightest exertion, do you suppose age has something to do with it? We relaxed most of the day attempting to acclimate and found that if we took it easy there were no problems.

Later in the day, we were full of pep and decided that we could handle a short hike up that mountain in the background of the above picture. Here’s EJ gearing up.

The streams are full of snow melt.

EJ encouraging Frank to “Hurry it up!”

“Hey! Wait for me!”

The summer growing season is short up here and buds were popping out all over.

Even though this was a beautiful spot, we need to move along. We’re going to try Copper Mountain and see what the parking situation is there. The lodge is right next to Interstate 70 so we’re a little leery about that. We’ll see.